The civic coat of arms of Maglie has  a blue background and it represents three interwoven rings. There are no historical documents about the origins of this small town but the recovery of some megalithic monuments proves that man already lived on this territory during  the prehistoric age. The names of the menhirs are "Crocemuzza",  "Spruno", "Calamauri" and of the dolmens "Canali" and "Chianca". The toponym derives from the Latin word "mallae mallearum" meaning "mesh". The first village was probably founded around the IX century when the Greek, built three towers in the three casali of St Egidio, St. Basilio and St. Vito to defend themselves from the Saracens. After the unification of the three neighbouring centres the new-born town was first called Magalia and then Maglie. During the Greek domination the village was strengthened with other towers and walls and  when the Normans arrived, Maglie became an important centre of the County of Lecce. In the XII century the king Tancredi of Altavilla gave the feud to Evangelista Lubello. The Lubello family governed for  four centuries until  1608. Later the feud passed under the control of Paolo Maresgallo. In  1686 Anna Carrera became the new feudal vassal and she was succeeded by Nicola Prato and in  1711  by Ascanio Filomarino, that ruled it until 1723. The last vassal was Francesco Capece that acquired the centre for 43,500 dukedoms, and governed until  1806. The Capeces contributed a lot to the economic and social prosperity of Maglie that became one of the most important centres of the Salento. The baroness Francesca Capece  left all her fortune to the young people of Maglie  to let them study. Here there are several important local characters as  Aldo Moro, who was born in  1916: he was a statesman and a politician. He taught at he universities of Rome and  Bari. Between  1955 and  1957 he was elected Lord Chancellor and then Minister of the Education and Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was first secretary and then president of the party of the Christian Democracy. He played an important role in the Italian politics but he was murdered on May 10th in 1978, after being kidnapped for 55 days by the Red Brigades. Concetta Annesi was born in 1749 and she decided to invest all her inheritance in the construction of an institute for poor girls, that was built in 1854, some years after her death.  Raffaele Fitto was born in 1941, and he  was an important political man. After graduating at the University of Bari in Economy and Commerce, he was elected mayor of Maglie, secretary of the Regional Counsel and, finally, President of the Region. He died in 1988 when he was 47 years old. Other well-known characters are: Francesco Saverio Giannotta (he lived in the XIX and was appointed Member of Parliament in  1848), Oronzo De Donno (obstetric of the XVIII century), Giacinto Toma (judge and man of letters of XIX century), Giacomo Piccinni (philosopher, theologian and archaeologist of the XVIII century), Antonio Adamuccio (physician of the XVIII century), Oreste Macrì (translator and man of letters  of the XX century), Luigi Giannaccari (Latinist of the XX century) and Francesco Negro (writer and poet of the XIX century).